I have a vision that one day "We the People" will work to improve our faulty public schools education system, decrease violence, eliminate top heavy administration salaries, and pay teachers a salary they so richly deserve.
I have a vision that senior citizens will never again have to decide whether to purchase food or purchase medicine that they need.
I have a vision that families of the dwindling middle class realize that continuing tax breaks for the wealthy will not be beneficial to them.
I have a vision that we will discuss more of the needs for the "working poor" because their contributions to America are as equally important.
I have a vision that elected officials will continue to fail to serve the will of the 98% of the population.
I have a vision that if we're not careful, this experiment we call Democracy will cease and give rise to a government that will represent the will of only 2% of the population.
I have a vision that citizens will stop being led astray by individuals and news outlets that are fear mongers, race baiters, xenophobic and dividers of the Republic, and start forming their own opinions and make intelligent decisions.
I have a vision that the 15 minutes of fame for Beck, Palin, Fox News and the Republican Party that sow hate and derision among us is just about up.
I have a vision that Bush, Cheney, and their cronies will be bought to trial for betraying the Republic.
I have a vision that every American will read the Constitution once in their lifetime and understand the true meaning of freedom of speech and religion.
I have a vision that citizens will stop saying the Republic was founded on the principles of Christianity--it wasn't!
I have a vision that Progressives will have an opportunity to guide America.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that every citizen in America is treated equal and that they are endowed with the opportunity to achieve economic prosperity for their families and for the Republic.
Anthony P. Johnson
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
“President Obama Resembles Hitler…Really?”
The next time some people want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler there are a few things you should know. Fact is the fate of black people in Nazi Germany from 1933-1945 and in the German-occupied territories ranged from isolation, horrific experiments, to persecution.
After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.
Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the victorious Allies occupied the Rhineland in western Germany. The use of French colonial troops, some of whom were black, in these occupation forces exacerbated anti-black racism in Germany. Racist propaganda against black soldiers depicted them as rapists of German women and carriers of STD’s and other diseases. The children of black soldiers and German women were called "Rhineland Bastards."
The Nazis, at the time a small political movement, viewed them as a threat to the purity of the Germanic race. In “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler charged that "the Jews had brought the Negroes into the Rhineland with the clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily-resulting bastardization."
African German mulatto children were marginal in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend the university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. Then with the Nazi rise to power in 1933, blacks became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, Himmler and his Gestapo had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments while others mysteriously disappeared.
Further, the racist nature of Adolf Hitler's regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler appeared to allow 18 African American athletes to compete for the U.S. team. But the fact of the matter was actual permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country.
Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government. Hilarius Gilges, a dancer by profession, was murdered by the SS in 1933, probably because he was black. Gilges' German wife later received restitution from a postwar German government for his murder by the Nazis.
Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime. Many, like female jazz artist Valaida Snow, were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals. The artist Josef Nassy, living in Belgium, was arrested as an enemy alien and held for seven months in the Beverloo transit camp in German-occupied Belgium. He was later transferred to Germany, where he spent the rest of the war in the Laufen Internment Camp and its sub camp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.
European and African Americans were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. Lionel Romney, a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine, was imprisoned in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Jean Marcel Nicolas, a Haitian national, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camps in Germany. Jean Voste, an African Belgian, was incarcerated in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Bayume Mohamed Hussein from Tanganyika (Tanzania) died in the Sachsenhausen Camp, near Berlin.
African American prisoners of war were especially faced with illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention. Lieutenant Darwin Nichols, an African American pilot, was incarcerated in a Gestapo prison in Butzbach. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo.
So the next time citizens in America want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, please think intelligently before you speak and remove all doubt.
Anthony P. Johnson
After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.
Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the victorious Allies occupied the Rhineland in western Germany. The use of French colonial troops, some of whom were black, in these occupation forces exacerbated anti-black racism in Germany. Racist propaganda against black soldiers depicted them as rapists of German women and carriers of STD’s and other diseases. The children of black soldiers and German women were called "Rhineland Bastards."
The Nazis, at the time a small political movement, viewed them as a threat to the purity of the Germanic race. In “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler charged that "the Jews had brought the Negroes into the Rhineland with the clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily-resulting bastardization."
African German mulatto children were marginal in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend the university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. Then with the Nazi rise to power in 1933, blacks became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, Himmler and his Gestapo had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments while others mysteriously disappeared.
Further, the racist nature of Adolf Hitler's regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler appeared to allow 18 African American athletes to compete for the U.S. team. But the fact of the matter was actual permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country.
Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government. Hilarius Gilges, a dancer by profession, was murdered by the SS in 1933, probably because he was black. Gilges' German wife later received restitution from a postwar German government for his murder by the Nazis.
Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime. Many, like female jazz artist Valaida Snow, were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals. The artist Josef Nassy, living in Belgium, was arrested as an enemy alien and held for seven months in the Beverloo transit camp in German-occupied Belgium. He was later transferred to Germany, where he spent the rest of the war in the Laufen Internment Camp and its sub camp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.
European and African Americans were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. Lionel Romney, a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine, was imprisoned in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Jean Marcel Nicolas, a Haitian national, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camps in Germany. Jean Voste, an African Belgian, was incarcerated in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Bayume Mohamed Hussein from Tanganyika (Tanzania) died in the Sachsenhausen Camp, near Berlin.
African American prisoners of war were especially faced with illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention. Lieutenant Darwin Nichols, an African American pilot, was incarcerated in a Gestapo prison in Butzbach. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo.
So the next time citizens in America want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, please think intelligently before you speak and remove all doubt.
Anthony P. Johnson
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
“Remember, Remember the 2nd of November.”
As I sit here on the bus listening to one of my favorite artist “VS,” I look around at the other riders wondering, "Do they know what their Republic is currently mired in? Do they even care?"
The major character in one of my favorite movies of all-time "V for Vendetta" blamed the citizens in England for allowing the country to fall under a totalitarian government because the citizens willingly surrendered their freedoms of speech, religion, and the press so they would be protected by the government against liberals, Jews, Islam, gays, lesbians and terrorists. It appears when cast on the wall of life, fiction and reality has become one.
I watch as citizens first began protesting having a community center built two and half blocks from Ground Zero, which is their right to "demonizing" Islam and those that practice it which is racist, prejudice, and xenophobic. I also hear politicians campaigning for placing poor people in prison buildings for being poor and unhygienic, politicians who want to repeal the 17th Amendment and oil companies like Chevron attempting to infringe upon journalists 1st Amendment Rights.
As the president begins the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, there are individuals in our government--"Bastards of War" if you will--that would rather deploy them to Iran and North Korea because they complete the tri-fecta of George W. Bush’s cartoonish theme of the “Axis of Evil.”
The Declaration of Independence and the Constititution protects everyone except illegal immigrants. If we’re not careful some will attempt to re-write them to protect everyone except Asians, Latinos, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, the sick, and impoverished. When this occurs, I should relocate to North Korea where they make no pretense of loving liberty, and they can be taken literarily and without the aura of hypocrisy.
As I sit here on the bus listening to one of my favorite artist and as I look around at the other riders, I wonder, "Do they know what their Republic is currently mired in? Do they even care?"
Anthony P. Johnson
The major character in one of my favorite movies of all-time "V for Vendetta" blamed the citizens in England for allowing the country to fall under a totalitarian government because the citizens willingly surrendered their freedoms of speech, religion, and the press so they would be protected by the government against liberals, Jews, Islam, gays, lesbians and terrorists. It appears when cast on the wall of life, fiction and reality has become one.
I watch as citizens first began protesting having a community center built two and half blocks from Ground Zero, which is their right to "demonizing" Islam and those that practice it which is racist, prejudice, and xenophobic. I also hear politicians campaigning for placing poor people in prison buildings for being poor and unhygienic, politicians who want to repeal the 17th Amendment and oil companies like Chevron attempting to infringe upon journalists 1st Amendment Rights.
As the president begins the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, there are individuals in our government--"Bastards of War" if you will--that would rather deploy them to Iran and North Korea because they complete the tri-fecta of George W. Bush’s cartoonish theme of the “Axis of Evil.”
The Declaration of Independence and the Constititution protects everyone except illegal immigrants. If we’re not careful some will attempt to re-write them to protect everyone except Asians, Latinos, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, the sick, and impoverished. When this occurs, I should relocate to North Korea where they make no pretense of loving liberty, and they can be taken literarily and without the aura of hypocrisy.
As I sit here on the bus listening to one of my favorite artist and as I look around at the other riders, I wonder, "Do they know what their Republic is currently mired in? Do they even care?"
Anthony P. Johnson
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
“In A Whisper.”
It is important to remember that democracy is more fragile than communism, socialism, oligarchy or a totalitarian government because democracy can dissipate in a whisper when those at the seat of its government are inept and corrupt. Democracy will become extinct if we continue to misinterpret among the citizens derision, hate and destruction for freedom of speech and of religion.
Anthony P. Johnson
* This article appears in the August 24, 2010 Metro Newspaper.
Anthony P. Johnson
* This article appears in the August 24, 2010 Metro Newspaper.
Friday, August 20, 2010
An Open Letter to the Neighborhood Churches
I wish each one of you could adopt 25 children and teach them the 3 R's, the difference between right and wrong, encourage them to graduate from high school, earn a college degree, and develop into a productive servant in their community. I wish you could adopt parents who are not equipped to raise children and teach them the meaning of parenting.
I wish you were more immersed and involved in the community where you're located and you'd see the impoverished, drug and violent infested, and illiterate reign. I wish the residents who battle these diseases of our society the best that they can had you as an ally for support, encouragement, and guidance.
I know you could provide more resources in the neighborhoods that have been inflicted with this pestilence because some of you have been there for 15 or 20 years or longer. It appears that those that you primarily serve seem to be only your parishioners that don't always reside within the community. I assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with providing for those of your membership, but is it possible to aid those residing in the neighborhood that don't attend your religious denomination?
I wish you were more open minded--I wish you were more accepting of same sex marriages--I wish you were more of an asset to the community than just being located there.
I wish...I wish and will continue to wish because wishing is the prelude to that what might become real. And when I'm finished wishing, I'll pray--pray for a miracle that those who do God's work will truly reach out to those most in need and start the community work that has been sorely neglected.
Anthony P. Johnson
I wish you were more immersed and involved in the community where you're located and you'd see the impoverished, drug and violent infested, and illiterate reign. I wish the residents who battle these diseases of our society the best that they can had you as an ally for support, encouragement, and guidance.
I know you could provide more resources in the neighborhoods that have been inflicted with this pestilence because some of you have been there for 15 or 20 years or longer. It appears that those that you primarily serve seem to be only your parishioners that don't always reside within the community. I assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with providing for those of your membership, but is it possible to aid those residing in the neighborhood that don't attend your religious denomination?
I wish you were more open minded--I wish you were more accepting of same sex marriages--I wish you were more of an asset to the community than just being located there.
I wish...I wish and will continue to wish because wishing is the prelude to that what might become real. And when I'm finished wishing, I'll pray--pray for a miracle that those who do God's work will truly reach out to those most in need and start the community work that has been sorely neglected.
Anthony P. Johnson
Friday, August 13, 2010
“The Worst…Really?”
If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history according to former vice president Dan Quayle's son, Ben Quayle, then George W. Bush must be one of the "best."
If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history for his historical Health Care, Financial and Wall Street Reform, then Mr. Bush is the embodiment of virtue. I guess we should be building schools and erecting monuments for a president that lied to involve the Republic in two wars that have resulted in the death of thousands of Americans, his participation in torture, his perversion of the U.S. Constitution and how he bought about an economic collapse that will take at minimum a decade to recover from. Genius!
If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history then President James Buchanan should be canonized for sainthood as he stood pat and watched the Republic tear itself in two resulting in the Civil War as 2% of the population perished as a result. If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history then the impeachment of Andrew Johnson was a mistake, right?
If President Obama is the "Worst president" in history then Nixon was correct in his belief that the President of the United States is above the law and he did nothing wrong, right? He has been the Commander and Chief for almost two-years and he is being touted as the "Worst president" in history.
The worst! Really?
Anthony P. Johnson
If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history for his historical Health Care, Financial and Wall Street Reform, then Mr. Bush is the embodiment of virtue. I guess we should be building schools and erecting monuments for a president that lied to involve the Republic in two wars that have resulted in the death of thousands of Americans, his participation in torture, his perversion of the U.S. Constitution and how he bought about an economic collapse that will take at minimum a decade to recover from. Genius!
If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history then President James Buchanan should be canonized for sainthood as he stood pat and watched the Republic tear itself in two resulting in the Civil War as 2% of the population perished as a result. If President Obama is the "Worst President" in history then the impeachment of Andrew Johnson was a mistake, right?
If President Obama is the "Worst president" in history then Nixon was correct in his belief that the President of the United States is above the law and he did nothing wrong, right? He has been the Commander and Chief for almost two-years and he is being touted as the "Worst president" in history.
The worst! Really?
Anthony P. Johnson
Monday, August 9, 2010
“It Works Every Time.”
Many Americans are abandoning their principles of rationality by allowing fear mongering; racist demagoguery, and anti-religion fervor lead the country to what resembles the Dark Ages of Europe where degradation, pestilence, and strife were law.
People can always be brought to the will of “fake” leaders. How easy is it? All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce those that counter your argument as Communists, Maoist, Stalinist or Socialists as exposing the country to danger. I assure you this type of deviant rhetoric works every time in any country.
When citizens start taking their cues from Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, two individuals that are so "intellectually inept" that Darwin would revise his theory of evolution after meeting them, you know the Republic is moving in a direction that will be sure to have a cataclysmic effect for a generation.
During the Dark Ages of Europe, if anyone was discovered practicing a religion other than Catholicism they would feel the fire under their feet--literally as they were burned at the stake, tortured or imprisoned. Today in America, there are citizens that continue the tradition of religious intolerance unless you're a "good Christian." In addition, the very people that use the Constitution to justify carrying guns into supermarkets, schools, and churches are shockingly quiet in that the same document supports practicing any religion without persecution. Yet, if one is for an example a Muslim they are branded a "terrorist" despite the fact that 90% of those practicing Islam world-wide including in the Republic are peace loving and law-abiding citizens.
We are moving backwards. We are allowing "perverts of anarchy" to decide the outcome of the Republic's future. We are moving backwards when we fail to hold elected officials accountable that are not concerned about the citizens or creating jobs for the aforementioned, or ending political corruption, improving our public schools, aiding the elderly and the poor, striking down poverty and addressing illegal immigration without rewriting America’s history; instead they submit and engage in racial and religious intolerance, xenophobia and perpetuate the elimination of the middle class and the working poor.
21st century America is looking more like the Dark Ages of Europe. We are moving back to a chapter in humanity when a dysfunctional society was built upon fear, illiteracy, poverty and superstitious rhetoric that decided the fate of one's life. Be careful citizens. Be very careful.
Anthony P. Johnson
People can always be brought to the will of “fake” leaders. How easy is it? All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce those that counter your argument as Communists, Maoist, Stalinist or Socialists as exposing the country to danger. I assure you this type of deviant rhetoric works every time in any country.
When citizens start taking their cues from Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, two individuals that are so "intellectually inept" that Darwin would revise his theory of evolution after meeting them, you know the Republic is moving in a direction that will be sure to have a cataclysmic effect for a generation.
During the Dark Ages of Europe, if anyone was discovered practicing a religion other than Catholicism they would feel the fire under their feet--literally as they were burned at the stake, tortured or imprisoned. Today in America, there are citizens that continue the tradition of religious intolerance unless you're a "good Christian." In addition, the very people that use the Constitution to justify carrying guns into supermarkets, schools, and churches are shockingly quiet in that the same document supports practicing any religion without persecution. Yet, if one is for an example a Muslim they are branded a "terrorist" despite the fact that 90% of those practicing Islam world-wide including in the Republic are peace loving and law-abiding citizens.
We are moving backwards. We are allowing "perverts of anarchy" to decide the outcome of the Republic's future. We are moving backwards when we fail to hold elected officials accountable that are not concerned about the citizens or creating jobs for the aforementioned, or ending political corruption, improving our public schools, aiding the elderly and the poor, striking down poverty and addressing illegal immigration without rewriting America’s history; instead they submit and engage in racial and religious intolerance, xenophobia and perpetuate the elimination of the middle class and the working poor.
21st century America is looking more like the Dark Ages of Europe. We are moving back to a chapter in humanity when a dysfunctional society was built upon fear, illiteracy, poverty and superstitious rhetoric that decided the fate of one's life. Be careful citizens. Be very careful.
Anthony P. Johnson
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